Bruno Reuer

Bruno Reuer (born April 2, 1949 in Hamburg ) is a German ethnomusicologist . He worked in the ethnomusicology department (Berlin Phonogram Archive) of the National Museums in Berlin, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, the Guardini Foundation and a freelance scientist.

Life

During ten years of schooling in Hamburg, at the Albert Schweitzer School, a school experiment with a special pedagogical character, Bruno Reuer came into contact with the various art movements. Violin lessons with Hubertus Distler strengthened his musical inclinations. Even before school ended, he became interested in the Hungarian language due to a personal incident and became a student of Hans Thurn as a guest student at the Finnish-Ugric seminar at the University of Hamburg. After finishing school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship in an import and export company in Hamburg. In 1972 he moved to Berlin. Shortly after arriving in Berlin, he was also involved as a violinist in the Spandau youth orchestra at the music school, was elected to the board of the Freundeskreis and organized two trips with the orchestra to Voitsberg (Styria / Austria) and one to Westerstede (Oldenburg).

During this time he enrolled at the Free University of Berlin for musicology. The musicological studies were specialized in ethnomusicology (comparative musicology) with Kurt Reinhard from 1975 and supplemented with two minor subjects, first Balkanology and psychology, later Southeast European history with Matthias Bernard.

From 1977 Bruno Reuer also played in small roles at the theater of the Freie Volksbühne in Jaroslav Hašek's “The brave soldier Schwejk”, directed by Karl Paryla. The decision to continue acting in the theater or to accept a scholarship for scientific research was not an easy one. Reuer gave priority to science and chose it.

After receiving a scholarship, he studied in Budapest with Bálint Sárosi and László Vikár and in Vienna with Franz Födermayer. The untimely death of Kurt Reinhard prevented the graduation from the Free University of Berlin. Thereupon Reuer turned to Bálint Sárosi, his supervisor in Hungary. In 1987 he received his doctorate at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Zeneakadémia, under Rector József Ujfalussy with the topic: Zoltán Kodály's stage work “Hary János” - contributions to his folk music and literary sources Company in Munich.

From 1987 Reuer worked in the Berlin Phonogram Archive, Department of Music Ethnology of the Museum für Völkerkunde SMPK, for the computerized recording of the music file. Soon the director at the time, Artur Simon, entrusted him with the implementation of the traditional museum concerts. In connection with the newly founded "House of World Cultures", the sporadic concerts resulted in a festival of traditional music with reference to groups of instruments: "Percussionale 89", "Brass Music 90 - From Asia to Europe" and "String Sounds 91". As in the past, the concerts with a small cast took place in the foyer of the Dahlem museum complex of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; for larger ensembles the stage was in the "House of World Cultures".

As a result of German reunification, numerous positions at the State Museums (West) were lost after 1989 in favor of an excess of staff in the eastern part of the city. The employment contract could therefore not be extended, although Reuer was also involved in the repatriation of cultural assets that had been relocated to the former GDR until reunification. From 1994 to 1996 Reuer took care of the non-European musical instruments at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne. Several musical instruments were severely damaged by two floods of the Rhine, for which conservation measures had to be taken: A restored “al'ud” - wood, lutes from the Orient, from the Oppenheim collection was presented in the “Blickpunkt”. At the same time there was a teaching activity together with Raimund Vogels at the University of Cologne in preparation for an exhibition in the Linden Museum in Stuttgart with the title: “mit haut und hair”, the world of lute instruments.

Research activity and work

During his scholarship in Hungary, Reuer followed in the footsteps of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály and drove to several places where folk songs were collected in the Palóczen area, the Nyirség and later to Gyimes in Transylvania. The aim of the trips was to trace current variants of the melodies used in Kodály's “Háry János” and to identify any abnormalities. Bruno B. Reuer: Zoltán Kodály's stage work “Hary János” Contributions to his folk music and literary sources, Dr. Dr. Rudolf Trofenik, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-87828-194-3 . At the same time he began to write articles about music: Bruno B. Reuer: Hungarian Folk Music from Today's Perspective - The Musical Legacy of Bartók and Kodály, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, August 25, 1978.

Alongside and after working at the museums in Berlin and Cologne, Bruno Reuer worked as a freelance scientist. In 1990, after the fall of the “Iron Curtain”, the first international symposium initiated by Reuer with the title “Perspectives of Ethnic Music - Documentation Techniques and Intercultural Relations” of the Museum's Ethnic Music Department took place, so to speak as a résumé of the postwar period in East and West for Ethnology SMPK and the Tudományos Akadémia Zenetudományi Intézete MTI (Musicological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) together with Lujza Tari in Budapest.

Building on the first symposium, the group of participants and the spectrum for the second symposium were expanded. It dealt with the disintegration of ex-Yugoslavia under the title: "Music in Transition - Cultural Identity and Social Change in Southeastern Europe", It took place in Berlin at the European Academy and was under the patronage of The Right Honorable The Lord Yehudi Menuhin. At the latest with this event it became clear that Bruno Reuer is a representative of an integrative musicology that did not regard musical forms as individual phenomena, but as an integrative social component in which the cultural context can only be understood as a whole. A reference to the topicality should always be sought with regard to a continuous writing of cultural history. Bruno Reuer coined the motto: "Culture is the operating system of society" and thus positioned himself in opposition to some "sober strategists" who see culture as superfluous and thus despise their own mother tongue and culture of origin, even consider it insignificant.

The third international symposium with the title: “United Europe - United Music? Diversity and Social Dimensions in Central and Southeastern Europe "(English title:" United Europe - United Music? Diversity and Social Dimensions in Central and Southeastern Europe "). After the EU expansion, the symposium took place at the Etnografski Musej, Ljubljana, just in September 2001 shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. American colleagues could therefore only participate via video. The question was whether a cultural unification of Europe can be expected through economic unification. It was under the patronage of the EU Commissioner Viviane Reding.

At the same time, during the phase of rapprochement between Albania and the European Central Powers in the second half of the 1980s, Reuer was one of the first to develop cultural exchange on the German side. Initially he was an observer of the 1988 Gjirokaster Festival, which was of the greatest national importance at the time. Several research trips followed through southern Albania to explore polyphony, as well as later through northern Albania with regard to instrumental music.

In 2003 and 2004, Bruno Reuer was involved in the major project “1. Ecumenical Kirchentag Berlin 2003 ”with responsibility for accompanying scientific programs. The project was carried out on behalf of the Guardini Foundation eV and the St. Matthäus Foundation under the title: “What is man?”. Further events were: "What kind of education do people need?", "What identity do people need" and "Religion, myth, mystery - is faith essential?". The individual lecture series took place at the following locations: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation International Nature Conservation Academy Insel Vilm, the Maria-Laach Monastery, the Luther Memorial Wittenberg and the Guardini Foundation Berlin.

During his active time, Bruno Reuer was also a member of the “Society for Music Research”, the Council for Traditional Music (UNESCO), the Southeast Europe Society and the Southeast German Cultural Association.

Even after retreating into private life, Bruno Reuer was still called in as an appraiser for a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He shifted his activity to the field of architecture. He succeeded in designing a house according to his own plans and in realizing it in a modern, environmentally conscious form. A book was also created about this in order to show other people a way to find themselves while taking landscape and the environment into account.

Another commitment is the revitalization of an old orchard meadow in Hamburg, which has been expanded with new plantings. The annual harvest of around 30 old apple varieties has meanwhile reached a high quality, so that they are presented at the North German Apple Days in Hamburg (Botanical Garden “Loki-Schmidt-Garten”).

Publications (selection)

Monographs

• One house - one built philosophy. A way out of the Baumisere with creativity and natural materials. Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8440-3524-7 .
• with Hans Poser (ed.): Education, identity, religion - questions about people. Weidler-Buchverlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89693-242-X .
• United Europe - United Music? - Diversity and social dimensions in Central and Southeastern Europe, contributions to the international symposium in Ljubljana (19-23 September 2001). Weidler, 2004, ISBN 3-89693-245-4 .

Programs

• Percussionals '89. Program for the festival (ed.), Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin and House of World Cultures GmbH, Berlin 1989.
• Brass music '90. Program for the festival (ed.), Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin and House of World Cultures GmbH, Berlin 1990.
• String sounds '91. Program for the festival (ed.), Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin and House of World Cultures GmbH, Berlin 1991.

Discography

• Music from Albania. CD with booklet in English, Rounder CD 5151, Cambridge, Massachusetts USA, 1999.
• Lassú magyaros - Sebes magyaros, in: Tones of cultures. Music from 17 countries, sound and text contribution to a CD, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1998, pp. 36,37 u. 52.

Awards

• 1977–1979 Two-year scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service for Hungary and Austria
• 1989 Prize of the Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, Munich, for studies on Zoltán Kodály's stage work "Háry János - Contributions to his folk music and literary sources". Rudolf Trofenik, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-87828-194-3 .

Web links

www.sogde.org www.ikgs.de

Remarks

1. ↑ Bruno B. Reuer: Zoltán Kodály's stage work "Háry János": Contributions to his folk music and literary sources. Rudolf Trofenik, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-87828-194-3 .
2. ↑ Bruno B. Reuer: With skin and hair - lute instruments in the Linden Museum Stuttgart. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 5th August 1996.
3. ^ Zoltán Kodály: Háry János. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Volume 3, Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-02413-0 , pp. 304-306.
4. ↑ Bruno B. Reuer, Lujza Tari (ed.): Perspektiven der Musikethnologie: Documentation techniques and intercultural relationships. Verlag Südostdeutsches Kulturwerk, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-88356-084-7 .
5. ↑ engl. Title: Bruno B. Reuer (Ed.): New Countries, Old Sounds? - Cultural Identity and Social Change in Southeastern Europe. Verlag Südostdeutsches Kulturwerk, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-88356-135-5 .
6. ↑ United Europe - United Music? - Diversity and social dimensions in Central and Southeastern Europe, contributions to the international symposium in Ljubljana (19-23 September 2001). Weidler, 2004, ISBN 3-89693-245-4 .
7. ↑ Bruno B. Reuer: People are still singing everywhere - tradition and changing values ​​in Albania. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 3rd February 1990.
8. ^ "Music from Albania", Anthology of World Music, recordings: Bruno B. Reuer, text: Bruno B. Reuer and Ursula Reinhard, Rounder CD 5151, Massachusetts 1999.
9. ↑ Albania. In: The music in the past and present (MGG). Part 1, Bärenreiter, Kassel etc. 1994, ISBN 3-7618-1100-4 , pp. 423-435.
10. ↑ Hans-Hermann Franzke, Bruno Reuer (ed.): The human being as a cultural and natural being. Shaker-Verlag, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-8322-1797-5 .
11. ↑ Bruno B. Reuer, Hans Poser (ed.): Education, identity, religion - questions about people. Weidler-Buchverlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89693-242-X .
12. ↑ Bruno B. Reuer: A house - a built philosophy. A way out of the construction misery with creativity and natural building materials. Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8440-3524-7 .